AIIMS may release third autopsy report today

The body of a 20-year-old Dalit girl,who her relatives and villagers claim was raped and murdered in a Jind village,was brought to Delhis AIIMS hospital late on Tuesday night. A third post-mortem examination was conducted by a five-member panel of doctors on Wednesday afternoon. The report is expected on Thursday.

This,after the first two autopsies conducted at Jind Civil Hospital and Rohtak PGIMS ruled out rape and murder and indicated that she could have committed suicide. However,the family refused to accept the reports and had demanded that a third post-mortem be conducted at AIIMS.

On Wednesday,head of the forensic medicine department at AIIMS,Dr Sudhir Gupta,said the victims visceral samples and tissues had been preserved for chemical analysis and the final report would be prepared now. Sources said doctors identified injury marks around the vaginal region,and on the breasts,skull and legs,but the injuries were not sizeable enough to determine how they were inflicted.

Sources also said that,prima facie,there is no evidence of rape,though vaginal swabs have been taken for laboratory examination. The body is significantly decomposed,so the natural findings or the physical evidence we saw today have been inconclusive. We are awaiting the chemical lab test results now, a member of the panel said.

The girl had left home in a Jind village on Saturday to sit for a compartment exam in JBT course but did not return. Her body was recovered the next morning from village fields. Since then,the area has erupted in violence,with family members and villagers alleging that the body was found in a mutilated condition and the girl was raped.

On Wednesday,people from the victims village gathered at AIIMS and protested outside the mortuary and later at Union Minister for Social Justice Kumari Seljas residence.

Following the autopsy,the body was taken back to Jind on Wednesday evening and kept in a refrigerated coffin. The coffin was taken to the premises of Jind Civil Hospital,where hundreds of villagers began an indefinite agitation. We will not cremate the body till the police identify and arrest all those responsible for her rape and murder, a relative of the girl said.

The protesters also took out a 4-km long candlelight march outside the residence of the Jind deputy commissioner. We want the district administration to realise that a poor girl has been raped and murdered. If they have gone blind,we will try to make them see the reality by lighting candles outside the DCs residence. We have lost all faith in the Haryana Police, the sarpanch of the girls village said.

When contacted,SHO Kaptan Singh of Jind City police station said: We have registered a case on charges of rape and murder. If the doctors and forensic experts rule out the possibility of rape and murder,what more can we do? The AIIMS report is expected tomorrow (Thursday). We have appealed to the villagers to maintain law and order.